I just recently got done building a new machine for my son. Windows 7 64 bit edition. Ever since we have plugged it in, I (and everyone else in the house) have noticed very slow internet performance. Web pages take forever to load, access to a network share takes forever to show up and the like. This did not happen with his previous machine and he is not doing any torrent downloading or other type of activity. I have disabled IPv6 on his wireless adapter, as I had read elsewhere this may be causing the problem, but this has not helped.

The rest of the network is two XP machines, two Macs, two apple TV's, and four iPhones. No downloading or other type of activity is going on with any of the other devices. All devices except one AppleTV connect wirelessly. I have upgraded the firmware on my Time Capsule, and this did not solve the problem either.

If I can't figure out what is going on I'm thinking of just segmenting his machine off the main network, but this does not really solve the problem. My wife and I run a business out of our house,a s well as having day jobs which require us to work from home, so this is becoming a problem.

6 Replies

My first thought is with that many wireless devices (assuming all are connecting to the one access point) your wireless network may be struggling. I have noticed that Win 7 does tend to poll the network more frequently than XP, usually because of the extra home networking and media sharing features. have you tried connecting the computer in question to the router via ethernet? This may help narrow down the cause of the issue, be it the wireless or something else.

I have an Apple Time Capsule which is 802.11 a/b/g/n and is the only access point in the house. I had no problems before with the same number of machines, so I can only assume it is the Win 7 OS. I do notice at times it does seem to be an on, then off, then on, then off, in surges almost.

I have unchecked IPv6 from the wireless adapter, but does not seem to make a difference. I have not tried ethernet, only because it is not a realistic scenario (old house, would be hard to run the ethernet cable)

Is the Windows Media Sharing turned on by default? I'll have to check into that.

So, what happens if you disconnect the Win 7 machine from the network? Does this fix the problem? Simply adding a Win 7 machine would not cause permanent problems like that.

11 total devices seems excessive for a home network(assuming consumer-based networking equipment). 10 on the wireless connection alone....

Here are the things I would try in no particular order:

1. Take the Win 7 off the network and test again. If this fixes it, temporarily plug the Win 7 machine in with Ethernet for troubleshooting purposes. If it still causes the problem, download wireshark and run it on the Win 7 machine to determine what kind of traffic is bombarding the network.

2. Upgrade equipment(router/WAP's/etc...) to a more SMB-friendly level. At 11 devices, I think it warrants it.

3. Install a second WAP. I know that you said everything worked fine before, but I tend to take those comments with a grain of salt. Many times, my users will have problems that, over time, get worse, but aren't noticeably worse. So, when it finally hits a certain level, "the problem just started happening." Anyway, it's possible that the WAP is just bottlenecking. A second WAP might take the strain off.

4. During these periods of problems, have you ever run a speedtest.net test? I'm curious if the installation of WIn 7 into your network just happened to coincide with problems from the ISP. I've had similar issues at both work and at home with inconsistent bandwidth.

5. I've never used the WAP you're using, but does it have some type of a log? It would be interesting if it's shooting out any kinds of errors. I'd also try switching it out with a Netgear/Linksys/whatever WAP. I just can't imagine that WAP being designed to handle that much traffic.

Well, I went out yesterday and got the new Apple Airport Extreme, dual band radios, guest networking, handles up to 50 devices etc. I'll see how it pans out. If still the same, I'll add the old WAP upstairs and see if that helps.

Recapping this in case anyone comes across a similar problem. Turns out the new Airport Extreme didn't solve the problem, so I called my cable provider and changed my service. One of those cases where I used to have the top service, but two years later I can get three times the speed for half as much deals. New router, faster service and the problem seems to have disappeared.

0

This discussion has been inactive for over a year.

You may get a better answer to your question by starting a new discussion.